


The Whisper Of An Echo

by sal_si_puedes



Series: Amsterdam [4]
Category: Actor RPF, The Old Guard (Movie 2020) RPF, The Old Guard RPF
Genre: Anal Fingering, Dirty Talk, Fluff and Smut, Light Angst, M/M, Marwan waxing poetic about a certain part of Luca's body, Masturbation, RPF, Shameless Smut, Smut, Zoom smut, hehe, ode to an asshole, terms of endearment, words unable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:01:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27714449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sal_si_puedes/pseuds/sal_si_puedes
Summary: A few months after the events told in“Amsterdam”, Luca’s back in Rome – and Marwan is still in Amsterdam. At first, it was busy schedules that has kept them from seeing each other, then the second wave of the pandemic. One night, they engage in a little something during one of their Zoom calls.(Can be read as a stand-alone / one-shot.)
Relationships: Marwan Kenzari/Luca Marinelli
Series: Amsterdam [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2018255
Comments: 19
Kudos: 99





	The Whisper Of An Echo

**Author's Note:**

> No ideas when the press junket for _Diabolik_ is going to take place, but in my mind it’s in mid-December. Also, in this universe, there are no such things as time limits on Zoom calls because some universes smile upon lovers.
> 
> Also, as always – in this universe they’ve been happily single before they started this thing between them. Now they’re not anymore. Hehe!
> 
> The pic Marwan finds and sends Luca is [this one](https://www.gettyimages.de/detail/nachrichtenfoto/luca-marinelli-arrives-at-the-giorgio-armani-show-nachrichtenfoto/541928520?adppopup=true). :)

Four long hours of virtual press junket for _Diabolik_ – an endless stream of video call after video call – have taken their toll on Luca. He’s tired, and his ability to concentrate is decreasing rapidly. There’s a short pang of guilt blooming in his stomach when he surreptitiously reaches for his phone while Antonio answers the next question, but it is quickly replaced by a flutter of happiness when he sees that he’s received a text message from Marwan.

He can’t help but smile as he unlocks the phone, even though he tries to keep a straight and neutral face, he doesn’t really worry if it will show in the interview. The happiness wraps around him like a warm blanket when he reads Marwan’s words.

 _hayati you must be tired but zoom me when ur done for the day i want to see your face_

He quickly texts back, just one word, because he doesn’t want the camera to see what he’s doing.

_yes_

Luca’s about to turn the phone face down and put it aside again when another message flashes up on its screen.

Shit. Luca can’t suppress a slight wince. Apparently, Marwan has somehow found the photo Ale has dubbed “the crotch pic”. It’s getty images and all but to this day Luca doesn’t fully understand how his publicist okayed it to go public.

 _someone’s packing_ , Marwan texts, and Luca can feel himself blush. _aren’t i lucky that i get to unpack that sometimes_

Shit. _Shit._ Luca can feel how his cock begins to stir in his pants. This can’t be happening. Not now. Not in the middle of an interview, and not with at least another hour to go before he’s done for the day. 

His body doesn’t care, and it seems that at least a part of his mind doesn’t care either because now he thinks he can feel Marwan’s mouth on his cock, his mouth, his lips and his tongue, and when Luca lets his eyelids flutter shut for a second, he can see it as well. This is not good, this is not—

When someone in the Zoom call says his name, his eyes fly open again, and he bites his lips. He really needs to nip this in the bud before—

 _Shit._ Not the best idea to shift his position, it seems. Luca winces again when his cock hardens further. It feels too good for the middle of a Zoom interview, far too good, and the next words that flash up on his phone’s screen don’t help either.

_you getting hard over there hm? thinking of me sucking you off? hm???_

_fuck_ , Luca texts back, biting back a moan. His body longs to move, he can feel how his hips almost give in and succumb to the urge to roll, but he can’t just now, so he takes a deep breath and sends one last text. _gotta go later_

He clenches his jaws and turns the phone face down, puts it down on the table next to the computer and gives it a determined shove away from where he’s sitting. He’s going to be a professional about this; they’re not teenagers anymore and—

And – great. Now a teenaged Marwan is on his mind, his beard still just a shadow and constantly horny, his lips tasting of sweat and tobacco. The remaining interviews are just going to be hell.

And they _are_ , but somehow Luca makes it through them with his sanity at least somewhat intact, half hard and tingling with barely contained arousal almost the entire time. It lasts longer than expected, too, almost another one and a half hours instead of just one as planned, and he’s sure that everyone is going to be able to tell how distracted he’s been ever since Marwan’s texts.

But eventually, the session is over, and Luca sits back in his chair, sighing, and runs his fingers through his hair. His back aches and his eyes burn, but he’ll get to talk to Marwan in a moment which is the only thing that matters. 

A quick bathroom break and a hastily smoked half cigarette later he makes himself comfortable on the sofa, his laptop on the coffee table right in front of him, a glass of wine and one of water as well as his cigarettes and an ashtray on the end table by his side. He pings Marwan, and it doesn’t take Marwan more than a few seconds to accept the call. He’s sitting at his dining table and he’s already smiling at Luca when his camera connects. Luca can feel a mirroring smile spreading on his own lips. Another wave of that warm happiness washes over him, and he sighs with content, his smile broadening.

“Hey,” Marwan says and frowns a little. “You look tired. You okay?”

“Si, si,” Luca nods. “I am. You know I am not a friend of those things but… It went well, though, I think. At least until I read your texts.”

“Ah,” Marwan grins, tilting his head. “That photo, though? Entirely _your_ fault that I was feeling so…” He wiggles his eyebrows, and Luca can’t help but laugh. “So… _creatively inspired_.” But when Marwan leans forward and catches his lower lip between his teeth, when Luca can see the glitter in Marwan’s eyes and how dark they are with pupil, his stomach lurches.

“Do you have any idea what that picture did to me?” Marwan’s voice is low and a little husky, and it goes straight to Luca’s cock. “What you do to me?”

“Fuck,” Luca bites his lips and shifts, his cock already beginning to harden again. “Stop this. We can’t—”

“Says who?” Marwan leans back, and his nostrils widen a bit when he takes a long, visibly shaky breath. “We can. And I want to. Fuck, I want to so much—” His breathing hitches, and he does that thing with his lip again, that damned thing, and Luca’s cock twitches in reaction.

It feels silly, palming himself through his pants like this, but it also feels so fucking good he can’t help but moan. “Fuck,” he murmurs, pressing the heel of his hand against his crotch. Even though Marwan is half a continent away, it almost feels as if he’s right here with him. “I wish you were here. I—”

“Yeah—” Marwan swallows thickly, and Luca can see how he’s breathing more quickly now than at the beginning of this call. “Yeah, me too—” He sits back a little further and does something with his hands that Luca can’t see but can very well imagine. “Fuck, me too…”

A sharp hiss, followed by a low moan, and there is no doubt anymore about what Marwan is doing. The pressure of Luca’s hand against his almost fully erect cock feels almost too delicious to bear, and Luca catches himself increasing it and then letting it decrease again rhythmically. He gasps and stills his hand.

“Shit,” he chuckles, straightening his back and running his fingers through his hair again. “This is—"

“Come on,” Marwan says and adjusts the angle of his laptop’s screen a little, so Luca can see a little more. He can’t see everything yet, though, and he can feel himself blush. “Show me. Show me. I want to see…”

Luca chuckles again, blushing even further, and shakes his head. They’ve done the telephone thing before, of course they have, many times, and they have had a plethora of Zoom calls, but not this. “You’re serious.”

Marwan nods, and Luca imagines how what Marwan is doing over there must feel, how Marwan’s fingers must feel around his own cock now and how they would feel around his, Luca’s. “Yeah,” Marwan moans. “Yeah, I am. I’m so hard for you, baby, and I want you to see. I want to show you, and I want to see you, too. Let me see you…Come on…”

Luca can feel himself swell to full hardness, and his cock is already beginning to leak, throbbing with need. He wants to feel his fingers around himself, his, Marwan’s, and it really feels as if he isn’t going to be able to keep himself from touching much longer. “Fuck, you’re—”

“Come on, baby,” Marwan coaxes, and the reaction of Luca’s body is immediate. Marwan has been calling him that for a few months now during fucking as well as before and after, ever since that first morning after the night he had not left Amsterdam. He’s been calling him _hayati_ and _lieveling_ , which apparently is a little old-fashioned, and _baby_ , which is about the cheesiest thing Luca has ever heard, and Luca loves it, he loves all of it, even though he’d never have thought he would feel that way about endearments like those. But with Marwan, it fits. “It’s going to be great, I promise.”

“It’s going to be fucking embarrassing,” Luca shakes his head, “and you’re an idiot.”

“Yeah,” Marwan moans and adjusts his laptop once more, and when he doesn’t get the desired result, he curses under his breath and rises from his chair. His jeans are open and even behind the hem of his shirt Luca can see that he’s inside his underpants. “A horny idiot.”

Luca bites his lips. It still feels a little silly, but he’s almost past caring. He’s so hard, and the idea of Marwan watching him jerk off on the small screen of his laptop, and the idea of watching Marwan do the same on his is intoxicating.

“Fuck,” he murmurs and unbuckles his belt. Even the slightest touch of his fingers against his still cloth-clad cock as he undoes the buttons of his trousers sends bolts of arousal through his body, and he can feel how he’s beginning to tremble with desire. “Oh fuck…”

Eyes glued to the screen Luca watches how Marwan settles onto his sofa as well and how he leans back against the back rest. For a small moment, Marwan’s eyes narrow and he bites his lips. Then he leans back and smiles, bringing his hand to his crotch again. 

“Light a cigarette for me,” he instructs, lazily palming himself, just when Luca’s about to reach into his own boxers. “Let’s make this last. At least a little.”

“You are saying that _now_?” Luca’s muscles clench and he draws in a shaky breath when he withdraws his hand. His fingers shake a bit as he takes a cigarette from the package and lights it. He takes a deep drag and closes his eyes as he lets the smoke stream out through his nose. “Okay,” he whispers and takes another drag. “Okay. Making this last…”

When he opens his eyes again, Marwan is holding something to his lips as well, and a moment later he’s exhaling smoke, too.

“Are you—”

Marwan nods, a content smile curling his lips. “Yeah.”

“Shit,” Luca shakes his head, grinning. “I wish I had some, too.” He takes another drag from his cigarette before he puts it into the ashtray and spreads his legs a little wider. He places his hand on the bulge in his pants and lets it rest there for a moment, savoring the light pressure and the radiating warmth. “You have me so turned on,” he wonders, shaking his head. “I don’t even know—”

 _Making it last_ be damned, if Luca doesn’t get to touch himself soon he’s going to go mad. He tugs at the hem of his shirt, letting his fingertips brush over the smooth skin of his lower belly until he reaches the waistband of his boxers. There, he hesitates a little, savoring the tingling on his skin and the giddy feeling of anticipation. His cock twitches, and he sucks in a sharp breath. Another short pause, and then he finally slides his hand underneath the waistband and closes his fingers around his cock. It feels heavenly. A long, low moan falls from his lips, and when he tries to bite it back at the end, his breathing hitches, and his hips jerk. “I’m so—,” he murmurs, and flexes his hips again, “so turned on…”

Marwan’s movements mirror his, and soon they’re both stroking themselves, their cocks still in the confinement of their clothing. “Show me,” Marwan groans after a couple of strokes. “I want to see you, let me, come on—”

Luca swallows, and when Marwan raises his hips a little and withdraws his hand, Luca doesn’t care about feeling silly or embarrassed anymore. He shoves his pants and boxers down over his hips almost in sync with Marwan, and his cock springs free, hard and dark with arousal, just like Marwan’s.

“Fuck,” Marwan moans, his eyes fixed on his laptop’s screen. “You look—”

“Yeah,” Luca echoes, “yeah, fuck—”

“Beautiful,” Marwan gasps, taking himself in hand again, and his eyes follow Luca’s hand as he does the same. “I wish I could touch you now… I wish—”

“Me too,” Luca runs his palm over the crown of his cock, where there’s already pre-come pooling, once, twice, three times, and then he wipes it against his upper thigh, leaving sticky traces on his skin. When he runs his thumb over his slit, his stomach lurches, and his eyes dart down for a short moment.

“Are you—” Marwan’s breathing hitches, and his hips jerk again, his cock fucking into his loose fist. “Are you getting so wet already?”

Luca bites his lips and nods, repeating the gesture, his slick skin incredibly sensitive under the tip of his thumb. “Yeah,” he moans and squeezes his eyes shut for a moment. “So—”

A short moan falls from Marwan’s lips, and Luca can hear some rustling noises as Marwan adjusts his position. “Fuck,” Marwan gasps, and Luca imagines how his fingers have just tightened around him and he gives his own cock a little more pressure as well. “Taste yourself,” Marwan adds, and Luca’s hips jerk. “Taste yourself for me…”

It’s difficult to let go of himself, but after a moment, Luca manages to uncurl his fingers and to bring his hand to his mouth. His lips open a little, and he runs his thumb over his lower lip. The tip of his tongue darts out and traces the caress, and Luca closes his mouth again and tastes for a moment before he opens his mouth once more and sucks his thumb into it. He can hear Marwan moan, and when he opens his eyes again, Marwan is stroking himself steadily, his lower lip caught between his teeth and his eyes hooded with arousal.

“Fuck,” Marwan murmurs, running the tip of his own thumb over his slit. “What you do to me—”

“You too,” Luca moans and runs the tips of his middle and his index finger over his lips before he licks into his palm. “Fuck, you too—” He watches Marwan taste himself, and he licks into his palm again, making it wet with saliva before he takes himself in hand once more. His cock is hot and hard in his palm, the skin as soft as silk, and the knowledge that Marwan is watching him do this is even more arousing than his own touch.

His hips jerk, but he tries to steady himself and his hand finds a rhythm, and it takes him a couple of strokes to realize that his hips are countering that rhythm and that his other hand is digging into the sofa’s upholstery so hard his knuckles have turned white.

“Too fast,” Marwan gasps, and when Luca looks at the screen again, he’s completely ceased moving. “Too fast, fuck—fuck.” Marwan takes a deep breath and shakes his head, chuckling breathlessly. “Slow down a bit. Okay?”

“Yeah,” Luca breathes, but his hips and his hands won’t comply at first, and he can feel himself approach the edge much faster than he’d had realized. “Yeah, slow—”

“Please,” Marwan cuts in when Luca is just about to throw his head back and let go. “Baby, slow, please—”

“Fuck—” Luca’s lets go of his cock as if it were made of white hot iron – which is exactly what it feels like, to be perfectly honest – and presses down on that point at its base with his fingers so hard it almost hurts. “Fuck, Marwan—”

“Just—” Marwan swallows and runs his fingers over the tip of his cock and then down its length and up again, his hand trembling just like his voice. “Just a little longer, ‘kay. Not just yet—”

“You tease,” Luca moans and tries to take himself in hand again, but after just the lightest of touches he withdraws his hand again. “I’m so close,” he shakes his head. “It feels like I could—any second. Like I’m only half a stroke away…”

“Yeah,” Marwan gasps, and Luca watches how Marwan’s hips begin to roll again, slowly, almost surreptitiously, and how his fingers close around his cock once more. 

“God,” Luca moans and tries again to grab hold of himself, and this time he succeeds but he has to keep his touch very light and barely there. “I want to do that for you…”

“Yeah—” Another throaty moan falls from Marwan’s lips, and Luca things he can feel the vibrations of Marwan’s voice, as if Marwan is right here with him, his words touching and caressing just like his hands. Biting his lips again, feeling them warm and pliant and swollen between his teeth, Luca holds his breath. He has an idea, and he can’t wait to find out if Marwan likes it.

He brings his other hand between his legs as well and cants his hips a little until he can cup his balls and let his fingers caress his perineum. He presses against his prostate and bites back a sharp hiss. When he closes his eyes for a moment and moves his hand a little further, the other one stilling on his cock, he can hear Marwan moan. 

His fingertip finds his entrances and pauses there for a bit. He feels the vibrating tension of his muscles, the building arousal already preparing for more. He lets his muscles flex and the sensation of that against his fingertip is incredibly intoxicating. When he presses his finger down gently, he can’t help but moan, and Marwan’s moan echoes his. He breaches himself with just the tip of his finger; he can’t believe how tight he is down there.

“Look at me,” Marwan says, and his voice sounds husky and raw, laced with desire and dripping with lust. “ _Look at me_ —”

Luca does, and when his eyes meet Marwan’s on the screen, his stomach lurches. Marwan has taken his shirt off and has shoved his pants further down, so all Luca can see now is naked skin. “Fuck,” he moans, and his muscles tighten around his fingers. He breathes against that and pushes his finger further in, watching Marwan’s eyes widen and his nostrils flare.

“Are you—”

Luca nods, and he marvels at how natural this feels, how sexy and how incredibly arousing. “Yeah,” he moans and pushes in another bit before he pauses, savoring the feeling.

When Marwan speaks again after a moment of breathless silence, his words increase Luca’s arousal and want by a hundredfold.

“You have the most beautiful hole I’ve ever seen, do you know that?”

“ _What?_ ” Luca sputters, and his movements freeze. He must have misheard. Marwan can’t have said what Luca thinks he’s heard. He simply can’t have, it would be—

“And to imagine you’re playing with it right now, that you’re fingering yourself … Turns me on so much. You’re so fucking beautiful, you have no idea.”

Luca’s chest constricts and he realizes he’s shaking his head. “Don’t say that,” he says and is about to withdraw his finger again when Marwan cuts in. “Don’t—”

“Shhhh,” Marwan soothes. Luca’s still holding his breath. Marwan must be able to feel that because his lips curl into the kindest smile Luca has ever seen. “It’s okay. I’ve got you. Just listen to my voice and let me tell you how beautiful you are, okay?”

Luca exhales shakily and wills his body to relax again. “Okay,” he nods, letting his eyelids flutter shut. “Okay. I will try.” He imagines Marwan nodding, that smile still on his lips. 

“Oh, and keep fingering that beautiful hole of yours,” Marwan adds. There’s a distinct grin audible in his words and Luca a short laugh falls from Luca’s lips. 

Luca’s hand starts stroking his cock again, and his finger inside of him ventures a little further. He’s so warm in there, almost hot even and it feels good, _so good_ , and Marwan’s voice just _melts_ into that sensation, that goodness, and Luca just lets it carry him.

“You’re so beautiful,” Marwan says, his words low and seductive and insanely debauched. “Down there. Everywhere but down there, too. It’s the most beautiful hole I’ve ever seen. Tight and a little dark, like a little shadow, and pink and then, _there_ , right at the center... That spot where I can put my finger just like that. Or my tongue. Or…” Marwan’s voice trails away, and Luca can almost feel the surge of arousal flaring up in Marwan’s body.

Luca wants to ask Marwan if he’s seen many holes then, wants to make a joke, but his brain seems to have frozen. Or his tongue. Which is what Marwan just said, _tongue_. “Fuck—“ All he can do is move his finger in and out, slowly, almost tentatively, and stroke himself. How Marwan is still able to form words, let alone coherent, beautiful, intoxicating sentences right now is beyond him. 

“It’s so tight and so fucking beautiful,” Marwan murmurs on, and Luca moans. “Remember when we made pasta back in August? And you let me eat you out?”

“Hmmmmhmmmm,” Luca moans, curling his finger inside him just a little. His hand on his cock stills and he squeezes his eyes shut against the intensity of the pleasure that shoots through him from the memories and from the mere thought of touching himself _there_. “Yah—” What falls from his lips is nothing more than a breathy huff, and his hips jerk a little, drawing his finger further inside.

“When I first saw you there, I almost came right there and then. You’re so beautiful, and that you let me see all of that, all of you—” Marwan’s breathing hitches, and Luca can feel how his own lips curl into a blissed-out smile. “When you let me touch you there, kiss you there, taste you—” Another hitch, followed by a short, breathless moan. “It’s so beautiful when you open up to me, when you let me in. The way you stretch around me, around my finger, around my cock when I enter you, when I push inside, you—I—”

The pace with which Luca strokes himself has quickened drastically, and he’s moving his finger in and out of his tight heat fast now, his hips rolling, his mouth slack and his heart beating out of his chest. His pulse is rabbit fast, and he can feel how his climax starts to build deep inside of him. He curls his toes and fucks into his fist, biting back another moan.

“You have no idea,” Marwan tries again, but his words are cut short by another moan. “Fuck, oh fuck, so beautiful, so fucking beautiful letting me in like that, fingering yourself for me like that, already so close, oh fuck if you could see yourself—”

Luca’s panting by now, and Marwan sounds as if he’s in no better state. Luca wants to open his eyes, wants to see Marwan as well, bask in Marwan’s beauty like Marwan basks in his, but for a moment he can’t. “If you look me in the eyes now, I’ll come,” he finally manages to murmur, trying to slow down his movements at least a little. “Fuck, I’m _so_ close, I—”

“Yeah,” Marwan gasps, “beautiful, so beautiful—”

For a moment, Luca doesn’t know what to do. He wants to wait, to draw this out a little longer, to make it last, just like Marwan said at the beginning of this, but he also wants to come. He’s so turned on and his need for completion is growing and growing, his cock so hard and throbbing, his skin burning and his whole body straining for release. “Shit,” he hisses when he can hear Marwan stop moving, and he stills as well.

His eyes fly open, and there he is, on the laptop’s small screen, right there in front of Luca on the coffee table – Marwan, skin glistening with sweat, hand wrapped around his cock, the other one fisted into his hair, mouth open, eyes closed and head slightly tilted back. It’s the most erotic thing Luca has ever seen, and he wants to tell Marwan that, but he can’t. “Close,” is all he can gasp, and again. “Close. Marwan— _close_ —”

When Marwan opens his eyes, it’s like a bolt of lightning. Luca knows that there is no way he’s going to be able to hold back any longer, so he fucks into his hand again, once, twice, three times, and every time he stops at the base, closing his fingers around it tightly, and waits a fraction of a second. After the third time, he can’t do that anymore, he knows that he’s going to make himself come, that he has to make himself come, soon, _now_ , and his eyes and Marwan’s are locked when Marwan gasps his name, _Luca_ , he says, _Luca_ , and Luca nods and maybe he says _yeah_ – and then he lets himself fall.

His climax is sharp and shattering and almost overwhelmingly intense. He strokes himself through it, watching Marwan spill himself as well, coming in long white spurts over his fingers and onto his chest and stomach. Luca covers himself in come, too, and it’s hot and messy, and there is nothing about it that Luca doesn’t love. His finger is still inside of him, and his muscles are clenching and releasing around it, and it feels so incredible it almost hurts. 

“Fuck,” Marwan moans, breaking eye contact. Luca watches him look down and bite his lips, squeezing another little bit of come from his cock, his slick, sticky, still almost erect cock. That sends another wave of release through Luca’s body, and Luca closes his eyes.

For a while after that there’re only panting breaths and low, quiet moans, until Luca can open his eyes again. Marwan’s slouched back on the couch, his head resting on the backrest, his chest still heaving, and his fingers still wrapped around his cock but now almost completely still. When Marwan swallows, his Adam’s apple bobs, and his grip around himself tightens a little, then relaxes again.

Luca takes a deep, shaky breath and looks down at where his hand is still holding his cock. His fingers are sticky with come, but they feel good like that, warm and even a little heavy, a bit like an anchor. He imagines Marwan’s fingers instead of his own, and even though his throat constricts a little at that, he can feel how his lips are curling into a smile. He looks up again only to find Marwan’s eyes on him and a slight, amused smile playing on Marwan’s lips. 

“Feel good?” Marwan asks, and Luca nods.

“Yeah,” he chuckles, moving his thumb a little, slightly stroking over his still incredibly sensitive cock. “Very good.”

“Good,” Marwan nods, and he winces as he uncurls his fingers. “Bit sticky, though.” 

“Hehe,” Luca takes his hand off himself as well, spreads his fingers and takes a closer look. “Yeah.”

“Quick clean-up and then talk a little more?”

“Yeah,” Luca nods, sitting up a little straighter, stretching his arms over his head. “In ten?”

Marwan nods, and Luca watches him rise from the sofa, and for a moment he can read some of the words on Marwan’s thighs. He knows them by heart now, maybe that’s why. With a small sigh falling from his lips, Luca raises as well. Once he’s in his bathroom, he rests his hands on the counter, left and right from the sink, and closes his eyes. He takes a deep breath and imagines himself in Marwan’s bathroom in Amsterdam, and he can almost feel Marwan coming up behind him and Marwan’s arms wrapping around him, the warmth Marwan radiates spreading through Luca as well. Luca shakes his head and opens his eyes again. His face in the mirror looks incredibly well fucked, and there’s a faint smile, too, but there’s also something else. Luca sighs and turns around, stepping into the shower. He cleans and dries himself quickly, dons his bath robe and returns to the living room.

Marwan’s not back yet, so Luca lights a cigarette and takes a sip from his wine. Then he rests his elbows on his knees and buries his face in his hands. He rubs his palms over his face a couple of times, then he bows his head further, lets his fingers run through his hair. His body is heavy with satisfaction but it’s also buzzing with a need that comes from an entirely different place.

“Hey,” Marwan’s voice and the sound of him sitting down again startle Luca from his thoughts, and he lifts his head. “You okay?”

Luca nods, and when he finds he’s biting his lips, he quickly runs his palm over his face. Marwan tilts his head. “Hayati?”

It feels good, in a way, that Marwan knows, that he can tell. That he can feel that something’s off. Luca sighs, then he takes a deep breath, worrying his lower lip between his teeth.

“I could read the poem on your legs,” he says, and Marwan’s brows furrow a little. “The words. Just before, when you stood up. I could read the words. But you’re in Amsterdam, and I’m here.”

Marwan’s jaws clench, and he closes his eyes for a moment. When he opens them again, it feels as if a gentle fire has been lit. Luca’s heart expands, and his eyes begin to prickle a little. 

“I miss you, too,” Marwan says, his words warm and tender, like a cloak in a winter’s night. “Sometimes, it gets so bad it hurts,” he adds, and Luca nods. “Sometimes, so bad it makes me cry.”

“Shit,” Luca says, running the back of his hand over his mouth. There’s something stuck in his throat, there has to be, and he can’t swallow it down and he can’t get it out. There’s a tight knot in his stomach next to the deep joy he’s been feeling ever since he didn’t leave Amsterdam in August, now and every time he thinks of Marwan, and there shouldn’t be. “I—”

“I’m glad though,” Marwan says when Luca falls silent. “I’m glad.”

“There’s—” The words get stuck, so Luca clears his throat and tries again. “There’s something I want to tell you, something I want to say to you but—” He swallows and casts his eyes down for a moment, to his hands. “But I don’t want to say it like this. Not when you’re there and I’m—not.”

“I know,” Marwan says after a short pause. “I know. Me too.” His eyes are wide when Luca’s meet them, and they just look at each other like that for a while until Luca nods.

“You remember what Matthias said in one of the interviews in the summer? About how we need each other, and maybe now more than ever?” Luca’s words feel raw in his throat and a little heavy on his tongue. He just wants to reach out and touch, but instead he adjusts his laptop’s screen to a slightly different angle.

“Yeah,” Marwan nods, and his voice sounds a little hoarse as well. “Yeah, I remember.”

“I think he was right,” Luca says. “I—I just—” He bites his lips, and briefly shakes his head, eyes closed. “Shit, I just wish—” He knows he’s being unfair, he knows that they both had too much on their plates till the end of October and he knows that there’s no way Marwan could have made it to Rome before the second lockdown, even though they’d initially planned for him to come here in September. It simply hasn’t worked out, that happens. So, he bites back the words he’s been thinking and shakes his head.

“I know,” Marwan says, “and I’m sorry. I miss you so much, lieveling, and I can’t wait to hold you in my arms again. And to tell you.”

Luca nods and runs his palm over his mouth once more. “Soon, I hope.”

“As soon as possible,” Marwan says, and he sounds so confident, so sure that Luca can’t help but smile. His heart feels a little lighter, and the dull pain in his chest begins to fade. “But until then, we can do this again if we want to, hm?”

Luca nods. “Yeah. Yeah, we can.”

“Now close your eyes and imagine my fingers caressing your face, okay? I’m lying right next to you, facing you, and your skin is so warm and soft, hmmmmmm…”

Luca does as Marwan suggests, lying down on the sofa, face turned towards the laptop. He doesn’t know if Marwan can still see him like this, if he can still see his face, but he also knows that they don’t need that, not really. 

“Can you feel that, hayati? Will you let me hold you like this for a moment?” Marwan asks, and Luca nods, shifting his position a little, letting himself slip further into the embrace of Marwan’s voice. 

“Thank you,” Luca whispers, and he can hear a soft chuckle. He falls asleep like that, camera still on and Marwan’s words gradually blurring into sound. When he wakes up again a few hours later, Marwan’s gone – or at least Luca can’t see him anymore, but his camera is still on. He pictures Marwan stretched out on his couch, fast asleep, his features soft and relaxed, and he decides to stay here, on his own sofa, for the rest of the night. To sleep here, next to Marwan.

Smiling, Luca pulls a woolen blanket over himself and settles in. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, letting the caresses of Marwan’s voice wrap around him. 

A little later, when everything’s quiet, he tries the words he didn’t say earlier, lets them linger on his tongue in every language he knows them in.

Italian. Spanish. French. English. Dutch. Arabic.

They sound good. Right.

And even though it might be just his imagination or the beginning of a dream Luca thinks he can hear the softest whisper of an echo of them in the night. 

~fin~

**Author's Note:**

> I'm [sal-si-puedes](https://sal-si-puedes.tumblr.com/) on tumblr. Come and say "Hi!"! :)


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